


Of Spiders and Blizzards

by StariWolfe



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, and oh dear there are spiders we have to deal with oh no, oh yes a blizzard rolled in so now we need to huddle for warmth oh my
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-04 11:02:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18342347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StariWolfe/pseuds/StariWolfe
Summary: A search for lost books goes awry when spiders come calling and a blizzard rolls in.





	Of Spiders and Blizzards

**Author's Note:**

> Holy frick I'm not writing about Vesper and Altair? Who ever thought we'd see the day? Anyway, Nocte and Auriel's pictures can be seen on my tumblr blog, nocte-argentea. Echo and Kalaa are EchoBear's characters (commander-lemon-bae on tumblr) and Braham is ArenaNet's.

“So, why exactly are we in these old dredge caves again?”

“Because Auriel got wind of an old stash of books here. Says they might contain some interesting information.”

“Okay, but why am I here? You know I’m not a big fan of book research.”

“Are you saying that you don’t want to bash any enemies that get too close to us, Braham?” 

“Point taken.”

Nocte smirked at Braham, pleased that he accepted her reasoning. She’d asked him along for precisely that reason. These caves, though long abandoned by dredge, were now home to swarms of other enemies, and while Nocte was fierce enough to take most of them by herself, there were others along for the trip today. She wanted to make sure everyone got out alive and unharmed, so she called on Braham for some assistance.

Speaking of the others, they were just ahead of the two of them. The one who was leading the party was Auriel, Nocte’s younger sister. Following closely behind her was Kalaa, the only human of the party, and Echo, Nocte’s hunting friend. They also had her owl, Soren, and Echo’s bear, Necessities, with them. The bear was walking beside the other ranger, while Soren was perched on Nocte’s shoulder. Kalaa was not enjoying this trip to the caves and nearly clung to the two larger women near her. Nocte wasn’t even sure why her sister insisted on the elementalist joining them. She supposed it was because they were good friends and she was from the Priory as well, so she could probably help decipher any old texts that they discovered. 

“Auriel, where exactly are these books supposed to be?” The five of them had only just made it into the cave system, and from what Nocte could tell, this place was huge. They could be in here for a few hours easily and not find anything if they didn’t know where to look.

“Supposedly somewhere in the center of the cave system. I’m sure we’ll know it when we find it!” Her sister cheerfully called over her shoulder. Nocte let out a deep sigh. Auriel’s optimism was fantastic, but the soulbeast really wished that she’d planned ahead more. Even though they had Soren to track and scout the caves, it would still take a while if they didn’t find a lead soon. She really didn’t want to be in a dark, dank cave late into the night.

“…You okay, Nocte? You don’t seem too happy right now.” Nocte turned her head towards Braham, who was looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just wish Auriel would’ve planned ahead a little more.” She glanced towards her sister. “I love her dearly, but I’d rather not be in this cold cave all day. Maybe I should’ve brought Fang and Steele with me.” Her wolves might’ve been able to sniff out the books, she considered. Then again, they were tired from their hunt yesterday. Maybe they wouldn’t have been as helpful as she thought.

“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be fine! With Echo’s bear, your owl, your bow, and my mace, we’ll be out of here in no time!” Braham was incredibly cheery for some reason. Nocte had no idea how he and Auriel stayed so optimistic. Maybe she just hated caves.

The party had been exploring the cave system for about two hours now, and apparently they were making steady progress. They’d arrived at a huge cavern, with lots of areas that might hold a cache of old books. The group split into two, with Nocte and Braham searching on one side and Auriel, Echo, and Kalaa searching the opposite. This situation vaguely reminded Nocte of the time she and Vesper’s crew went to search for treasure in a hydra den. She doubted there were any hydras in the Shiverpeaks, thankfully.

She noticed, however, that there were plenty of spider webs. The ranger crouched down to examine them further, noting that they weren’t that old, and realized that this particular kind of web belonged to a large species of cave spider. That spelled bad news for two of the explorers, including her current companion.

“N-Nocte…please tell me those aren’t what I think they are…”

“Sorry, Braham, they are. Looks like we’re gonna have company.” Nocte stood up from her position. “We’d better get back to the others. Kalaa is more afraid of spiders than you are.”

“I’m not afraid of spiders! I’m just…not used to them.”

“I’m sure. In fact, I think I remember Vesper said that you said something similar when you guys were clearing out Sun’s Refuge.”

Braham fell silent at that, grumbling more about how he wasn’t afraid of the arachnids. The two made their way to the other three party members, who seemed to be crowded around a small hole in the bottom of the cave. Well, Kalaa and Echo were around the hole, anyway. Auriel was crouched inside, examining something.

“We have a problem.” Nocte walked quickly up to the others, with Braham close on her heels. “I found some…evidence of some nasty creatures in here. Have you guy found anything yet?” She deliberately avoided saying spider webs. No reason to have both Kalaa and Braham scared out of their minds right now. 

“Yup! We found the books!” Auriel said from within the hole. “I’m just getting them in the bags we brought, shouldn’t be too long!”

“I hope so. We need to get out of here, quickly.” Nocte thought she heard skittering behind her. Their animal companions were starting to act nervous too.

“Is it really that bad, Nocte?” Kalaa asked, seeming nervous.

“It’s nothing we can’t handle, but I’d rather not deal with it.” She knew that the five of them could easily take a few spiders, especially Braham and herself, but if what Vesper said about the previous spider fight in Sun’s Refuge was true, this would be a hard fight.

“Don’t worry, she’s almost done. There’s apparently some really interesting finds here.” Echo stated. Auriel, as always, was oblivious to everything but the books. Nocte doubted she even took note of the spider webs that had covered them.

Wait. Auriel had disturbed the webs by removing them from the books. That meant…

Nocte looked at Kalaa and Braham. They were looking somewhere behind her, fear evident on their faces. She turned around.

A huge spider brood mother was descending from the ceiling, preparing fire webs to ensnare the adventurers. And it was aiming at Auriel, who’d finished getting the books and hadn’t noticed the spider behind her yet.

“Auriel! Get down!” Nocte shouted, running towards the startled revenant. She pushed her sister and her loot out of the way, and right on time. The spider fired web right where she’d been, but thankfully, it missed Auriel thanks to her sibling’s quick thinking.

However, it caught Nocte instead, pinning the ranger’s arms to her body. She hit the ground with a thud, knocking the air out of her lungs. This fight just got a whole lot harder.

“Quick! Auriel, Kalaa, on me! Braham, help Nocte! Keep those little spiders off of her!” Echo quickly took charge, drawing her longbow and calling for Necessities to prepare itself to fight. The others followed her lead; Auriel and Kalaa drew their weapons to face the giant spider, while Braham rushed to where Nocte was struggling on the ground.

“Braham, there’s a dagger on my belt. Use it to cut the webs, fast!” Even as strong as she was, the ranger could barely move her arms, let alone get free by herself. Soren was fending off the spiders as best as it could, buying time as Braham got the dagger and started cutting the webs off of his friend.

“Spirits, what is this stuff made of?” Braham was making progress from what Nocte could tell, but the webs were strong. He was having some trouble and getting frustrated.

“I’d tell you why it’s like that, but I don’t think now is the best time for spider trivia. Try cutting the webs near my arms so I can get them out.” She stole a glance at their friends fighting the spider. Kalaa was scared and mostly just shooting fire towards the general direction of the spider and hoping it would hit. Auriel had her hammer out and was getting a few hits in on its legs, so she was doing fine for the most part. Echo was firing arrows towards its eyes while Necessities attacked the legs with the revenant. 

“Here, try now!” Braham had cut away some more webs near her arms, and started trying to tear them away with his hands. His efforts combined with Nocte’s struggling helped her finally get free. After he helped her to her feet, she drew her greatsword and the two set about bashing the spiders that were surrounding them. With Nocte finally in the fight, the spiders didn’t stand any chance and were all squished in a matter of seconds.

“That’s them taken care of. Now for the big one.” She drew the legendary bow Kudzu with a flourish, and took aim at the spider brood mother. With stunning accuracy and speed, she fired several arrows into its many eyes, blinding the creature. “Alright, everyone hit it with all you’ve got! It’s almost down!”

With the combined effort of all five adventurers, even the giant spider was no match, and soon it was a burnt husk on the cavern floor. Nocte stowed Kudzu away and turned towards the others of the group.

“Is everyone alright? Are all the books accounted for?”

“I’m…shaken, but I’ll be okay.” Kalaa was breathing heavily, more from what was left of her fear than exhaustion. “Can we get out of here though? I don’t want to see more spiders…”

“Yeah, I second that.” Braham was a bit better at hiding his fright, but it was clear he was ready to be done with the spider infested caves.

“Well, we got what we came for, right Auriel?” Nocte glanced at her sister, who nodded in affirmation. “Then let’s get out of here. If I remember right, we came from this tunnel over here…”

The quintet began to make their way back through the caverns, killing what was left of the spiders and getting closer and closer to the surface with each passing minute. After about an hour of walking, they finally made it to the small cavern that was adjacent to the cave entrance. Before anyone could head towards the exit, Echo held up a hand.

“Hang on. I think I hear something outside, and it doesn’t sound good.” She headed towards the exit, took one look outside, and her face fell.

“I feel like I’m going to regret asking this, but what’s wrong, Echo?” Nocte was still relatively energetic, due to her being pinned for much of the spider fight, but she still would prefer not to fight anymore gigantic enemies today.

“Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that it’s not another giant spider, or even a creature, that we have to fight.” The party let out a relieved sigh at that. “The bad news is that a blizzard rolled in, and it’s bad enough that I don’t think we should try to get back to Hoelbrak while it’s raging like this.” The rest of the group ran up to join Echo, and sure enough, just outside of the cave, howling winds were blowing snow at an incredible velocity. They couldn’t even see 5 yards outside of the cave.

“Well, hell. I guess we’re making a makeshift camp here until it blows over.” Nocte started to look around the small area, making sure they’d be safe there. The others began to sit down around the walls, tired from their fight with the spider and the trek back to the cave entrance. Nocte was glad it wasn’t another spider, to be honest. She swore she’d gotten webs in her hair, and that would be a joy to get out.

“So…what are we gonna do while we wait for this to blow over?” Braham was not a fan of waiting around. Nocte could see his leg bouncing from where she was.

“You guys can do whatever, I’m gonna try to sleep.” Kalaa shifted her position to lay on the ground, trying keep warm as best as possible. “Gods, why does it have to be so cold?”

“Here, why don’t you all try to rest? You can huddle with each other to stay warm. I’ll take first watch. I’m not as tired as the rest of you.” Nocte stated, as she moved towards the entrance of the cave, and sent Soren to the other side of the cavern to watch the other entrance for enemies. Auriel and Echo, probably the most exhausted members of the party, didn’t argue with the soulbeast and sat down on either side of Kalaa, with Necessities plopping itself beside Echo. The elementalist sat up and leaned against the two norn women, seemingly thankful for the warmth. Braham, on the other hand, stayed standing.

“I’ll join you. I’m not tired either.” He moved stand on the cave wall opposite of the ranger, watching the snowstorm rage outside. Nocte nodded at him, and though she wouldn’t admit it, she was glad for the company. They stayed silent for a period of time, just watching the wind blow and listening for danger. Soon enough, they heard gentle snores coming from the other three. At least they were getting some rest.

Suddenly, a gust of freezing wind blew into the cave, spreading snow flurries onto the two watchers and making Nocte shudder with the sudden burst of cold air.

“Nocte? You okay?” Damn. She was hoping Braham didn’t notice that. But he was watching her now, concern on his face.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just wasn’t expecting a gust to come this way.” That was true, but what the ranger wouldn’t say was that she’d been a bit spoiled after following Vesper through the Crystal Desert. She’d become acclimated to the blistering temperatures there, and now she even found Hoelbrak too cold at times. She really needed to spend some time in the mountains to get her natural resistance to the cold back to normal. She shifted herself into a sitting position against the cave wall, pulling her long coat a little closer around her.

“…Maybe so, but it’s still freezing, even for us. Actually, hang on. I have an idea.” Braham moved to Nocte’s side of the cave and sat down beside her. She shot him a confused look. 

“Braham? What are you-”

“You can…uh…huddle up to me, if you want. We can keep each other warm, that way. If you’re okay with it, that is.” He looked away from her, but not before Nocte noticed him blushing like mad. Not that she could talk about that, since her face was burning with heat at this point. She sighed.

“Yeah, that’s honestly probably a good idea.” The ranger scooted into his side, immediately feeling warmer. She steeled herself before continuing speaking. “Here, put your arm around my shoulders. It’ll help keep you warm, too.” He paused for a moment, and she was afraid she’d offended him. But, he complied soon enough. She looked anywhere but him, trying to hid her red face. They stayed silent a little while longer. Nocte had no idea what to say at this point, but this quiet was near unbearable. Braham finally broke the silence, startling her.

“Hey Nocte, you were gonna tell me that story about the commander and the ice hydras at one point. Why don’t you tell me now? It’ll keep our mind off of things.” He still wasn’t looking at her, but he sounded genuine about wanting to hear the story. Plus, telling it would probably help her calm her nerves, and pass time while waiting for the storm.

“Sure thing. I’m always down to tell embarrassing stories of Vesper. But you’ve got to tell me a story, too. Specifically, I want to hear about the specifics of clearing out Sun’s Refuge. They didn’t get the chance to tell me everything in full.” She smirked when she heard Braham let out a groan of displeasure. “And I’ll know if you’re lying, just so you know.”

“Alright, fine. So what happened with the hydras? All I know was you guys giving the boss and Altair some trouble about something.”

“So, one of Vesper’s contacts had told her of an old corsair cache in the Elon Riverlands…”

The two continued to swap various stories of their various adventures, making sure to pause every now and again to check the blizzard and to make sure nothing had disturbed the other three party members. Nocte was surprised to admit it to herself, but this was…nice. She enjoyed sitting here, sharing stories with Braham and watching the snow. The only things that could make it better would be a nice bonfire and some ale.

She was loathe to admit it, but maybe both of Braham’s arms around her would be nice, too…

She didn't know how to handle that thought, so she took a quick glance outside. Her eyes widened, for the storm had subsided somewhat. It might even had let up enough to at least get back to Hoelbrak. If not there, then maybe at least a place to stay for a while that’s more comfortable than a cave.

“Braham, look! We might be able to leave now!” She quickly got to her feet, not noticing the somewhat disappointed look on Braham’s face. She went to rouse the others from their sleep so they could get on the road. Echo confirmed that the storm should stay died down for at least a while, so they could at least make it to Hoelbrak. The quintet started on their way north to the norn city, with Auriel and Echo out in front helping Kalaa through the deeper areas of snow, and Braham and Nocte following a short distance behind them. The ranger was happy to be on the road. When she got back to the guild hall, she’d probably have to enlist Sapphire’s help to get all of the webs off of her clothing and out of her hair. She was also gonna take a nice warm bath.

“Hey, Nocte?” She looked over at Braham, who’d spoken. “We should swap stories more often. Maybe at an actual moot instead of in a spider infested cave.”

“I’d be alright with that, as long as you’re buying the ale.” Nocte let out a laugh at Braham’s indignant face. “But honestly, I’d enjoy that. Especially without spiders around.” She smiled sweetly at him.

“Y-yeah, me too. Anyway, let’s catch up with the others. I think Kalaa’s stuck.” They looked ahead and, sure enough, the other two norn were trying to pull the human out of a large pile of snow that had seemingly fallen from a snow covered tree. Necessities was trying to dig her out, but it was easier said than done.

“Alright then, let’s give them a hand and get on the road. I’m ready to get back to the guild hall and get a bath.” The two ran ahead to help their friends, and afterwards continued on their way to Hoelbrak to celebrate a successful mission.


End file.
